The former Green Bay Packers guard was passed over by the Senior Committee, which nominated one player — former Minnesota Vikings center Mick Tingelhoff.

Between four and eight nominees will be chosen on Jan. 31, the night before Super Bowl XLIX, for induction into the Hall of Fame in August.

We’ve known since August that Kramer wasn’t selected, but it wasn’t until this autumn amid reports of the deteriorating health of other members of the Glory Years Packers that the point was driven home — we can’t keep saying, “well, maybe next year,” as we await the Hall of Fame to correct the glaring omission of including Kramer among its members.

The Dec. 14 death of Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston, Kramer’s counterpart in the famed “Lombardi sweep,” provided an exclamation point. As we’ve celebrated Thurston’s life as a player and popular Wisconsinite over the last week, it reminded us of his good friend Jerry Kramer and a wrong we’d like to see righted during Kramer’s lifetime.

Kramer is in relatively good health, though he admits to some lapses in memory, but he and other members of those championship teams are fighting a battle with time that they, like all of us, will ultimately lose.

We’re not just being sentimental. We believe Kramer’s deserving of the honor and should already be in. He was a five-time first-team All-Pro selection, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, an integral part of five championship teams, part of a key block in the signature touchdown of the Ice Bowl, and a humble ambassador of the game (and the Packers) who refuses to lobby on his own behalf for inclusion in the hall.

In 1969, Kramer was named to the NFL’s 50th anniversary team. He was the only guard on that esteemed team. And he’s the only member of that team not enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Some people believe he’s already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s not. Some people believe it might be because there are too many Packers from that era who are already in the hall. That excuse is hogwash.

Eleven Lombardi-era Packers have been inducted, including the legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, who guided Green Bay to five championships, including the first two Super Bowls. The Glory Years Packers players in the hall are Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Jim Ringo, Paul Hornung, Willie Wood and Henry Jordan.

If anything, more players should be in if you consider the fact that the Packers won five NFL championships in seven years. No NFL team has matched that in the nearly 50 years since then.

The road to Canton doesn’t get any easier. The Hall of Fame senior selection committee will consider only one finalist per year in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and two in 2016 and 2018, and there are other overlooked players.